Apple faces protests after supplier fires Filipino workers

LOS ANGELES - While the world awaits the release of the iPhone 6, some communities are warning that the much anticipated gadget has a so-called "ethical glitch" as two dozen Filipino workers were believed to have been unjustly fired from one of the tech giant's suppliers in the Philippines.

"Apple can't make its product run without the work of Philippine workers at NXP," said Kuusela Hilo of the International League of People's Struggles.

Dutch based-NXP, who supplies parts for Apple, fired 24 union leaders at one of its plants in the Philippines, as they were beginning contract negotiations last May.

US-based unions, human rights activists and and Filipino-Americans are calling on Apple to make sure the workers are rehired and negotiations continue.

"One of their factories fired Filipino workers when they were trying to organize and demand for just conditions and this a huge problem. Union busting is illegal here in the United States and should be illegal in the Philippines as well," said Chanelle Yang of the United Students Against Sweatshops.

Bob La Venture, United Steel Workers District 12 director, said, " Apple is the one that contracts those 3rd party suppliers and Apple has all the power to do that."

The iPhone 6, which is believed to have semiconductors produced by NXP, launches this week. There is no call for boycott of Apple products, but a petition with 150,000 calling for the reinstatement of the Filipino workers has been circulating.Apple has yet to respond to Balitang America's request for comment.

"We're calling on Apple to do the right thing with workers around the world especially in the Philippines where they wanted to voice their democratic right to have a union and Apple is squashing that opportunity to do that," La Venture said.

The Philippines Department of Labor and Employment is also reportedly looking into the firings at NXP, as protest actions have also taken place against another NXP client -- Samsung.

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Tokyo holds first World Assembly for Women Today

TOKYO – Female political and business leaders from over 25 countries will gather here today for the first World Assembly for Women in Tokyo (WAW! Tokyo 2014) organized by the Japanese government to further promote women’s political and economic empowerment.

Among the participants will be International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie and Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Sen. Loren Legarda is the lone representative from the Philippines in the high level international symposium. She is expected to share the Philippine experience in fighting for women’s rights and closing the gender gap.

“It is a privilege to represent the Philippines in this assembly on women empowerment. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is known for advocating women’s rights. We support him in creating a ‘society where women shine’ and we are more than willing to share our country’s good practices and challenges with Japan and other nations to help improve the lives and secure the rights of women around the world,” Legarda said.

She will share the Philippines’ achievements and challenges in promoting women empowerment, especially in the area of disaster risk reduction and management.

Rui Matsukawa, director of the gender mainstreaming division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the issues to be discussed in the three-day assembly include the economic benefits achievable by promoting the active roles of women, diversity in working styles, the development of society, and the common issues relating to women throughout the world. 

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Two Filipino soldiers killed in clash with separatists

MANILA: Two Philippines soldiers and an unknown number of guerrillas opposed to the government’s peace deal with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group were killed in a clash Thursday, the military said.

Fighting broke out in the south a day after President Benigno Aquino asked Congress to pass a Muslim autonomy law for the region, a key step to ending a decades-old rebellion that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

About 20 BIFF rebels opened fire on a military detachment late Wednesday, then attacked an army unit sent out to confront them early Thursday, said Maj. Gen. Edmundo Pangilinan, an army commander on the major southern island of Mindanao where the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) operates.

The rebels killed two soldiers and wounded six others, he told reporters by telephone.
He said residents recounted to the military seeing up to 10 rebels dead in Thursday’s two-hour gunbattle, though no guerrilla bodies were recovered.

If the death toll is accurate, it would be the deadliest clash in Mindanao involving the BIFF since July, when 17 rebels and a soldier were killed in a single day.

The BIFF split from the main Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), in 2008.
The 10,000-strong MILF signed a peace agreement with the Aquino government in March with the aim of creating an autonomous region for Muslim-dominated areas in the south of the largely Catholic nation.

However the BIFF, which is believed to have just a few hundred fighters, has rejected the agreement and vowed to fight on for a separate state in the southern Philippines.
Canadian Muslim preacher arrested

A Canadian Islamic preacher has been detained in the Philippines, where authorities deemed him a potential threat to national security, the immigration bureau said Thursday.

Jamaican-born Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, who grew up in Canada, was arrested in the southern Philippine city of Davao on Sunday shortly after his arrival there and would now be deported.
“Philippine government agencies asked us to deport him because he could be a potential threat to national security,” bureau spokeswoman Elaine Tan told AFP.

Tan said the bureau was aware Philips had been blacklisted by a number of other countries. The Canadian Embassy said it was unable to comment due to privacy laws. Philips was the second Islamic convert preacher to be detained by the Philippines since July, when it also arrested Robert Edward Cerantonio to Australia.

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